Life‐cycle direct public fiscal contributions and transfers are studied using longitudinal income tax data from 1982 to 2016 and administrative files for immigrants landed in Canada from 1980 to 2016. Relative to a comparison group comprising the Canadian‐born and immigrants landed before 1980, immigrants since 1980 have a lower average net direct fiscal contribution (NDFC) during their working years due to their lower taxes and social security contributions but a higher average NDFC after 65 years of age because of reduced public pension eligibility and entitlement. Immigrants who landed at younger than 19 years old have much higher direct fiscal contributions than other age‐at‐arrival groups and reach their peak of contributions around 10 years earlier in life than other age‐at‐arrival groups. Immigrants whose age at arrival is above 65 have a less negative average NDFC than other age‐at‐arrival groups over the above‐65 life cycle. These life‐cycle age𠄁at‐arrival trajectories are stable for immigrants in different landing cohorts. We apply the life‐cycle estimates to project the present discounted value of lifetime NDFCs for immigrants who landed in 2016. For each landing age group, refugees and family class immigrants have negative or zero average present values of life‐cycle NDFCs, much below that of economic immigrants.

In the Canadian sample of the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, lower scores within occupation groups are more common among Indigenous individuals (not living on reserves) than for non-Indigenous individuals. This may be interpreted as evidence of what economists call under-skilling, which has been associated with increased vulnerability to job loss during economic downturns. Estimated under-skilling rates are higher for English or French literacy among First Nations men, for numeracy among First Nations women, and for both proficiency domains among Inuit women and men. Over-skilling is primarily associated with inefficient use of labour resources and reduced welfare. Controlling for demographic characteristics, we find no consistent statistically significant evidence that the odds of being over-skilled—that is, of having higher scores than those within the same occupation group—are different for Indigenous individuals compared with non-Indigenous individuals. In estimated wage equations, wage differences shrink when our over-skilling and under-skilling estimates are added to the controls, but First Nations differences remain negative and significant, particularly for men.